The Earn This Podcast, Episode 22: Devil’s Backbone Adventure Pack

It’s springtime, and Colton has prepared a tasting for us from the Devil’s Backbone Adventure Pack! Mike and Dan blind taste-test the six beers (plus an oddball bonus seventh beer) in a competitive fashion.

Here are the seven beers we tasted, in order, from the brewers’ descriptions:

Devils Backbone Brewing Company: Vienna Lager (5.2% ABV; 18 IBU) is amber in color with a subtle toasted caramel note and a smooth malty finish. Brewed using a combination of Northern Brewer and Saaz hops with Vienna, Pilsen, Dark Munich and Caramel malts and allowing five weeks for the lagering process and the flavors to fully develop.

Sun King Brewing Company: Another State of Kind (6.8% ABV; 68 IBU) a double dank cream-style ale. Pale in color and loaded with Simcoe and Columbus hops, this beer is an unlikely marriage of a cream ale and a double IPA.

Thunder Road Brewing Company: Double Pacific Ale (8.4% ABV; 50 IBU) a strong Australian-style ale. Pacific ale is an emerging style that uses fruiter hops grown in Australia and New Zealand, for this US brew the team used Aussie galaxy hops and a combination of malts for smooth, tropical notes.

Surly Brewing Company: Risen (8.4% ABV; 50 IBU) a coffee and oak, double brown ale. This lavish brown ale was brewed with over 100 pounds of locally roasted coffee and was rested on oak for a toasted finish with extra complexity.

For our first new 12-ounce 4-packs in nearly half a decade, we replaced the classic barley foundation of beer with a mild sorghum base. The hints of molasses and pit-fruit are balanced by vibrant strawberry notes and a unique complexity that comes with the addition of a malty buckwheat honey.

During the recording, I was under the impression that beers #2 thru #6 were collaborations between DB and the various other brewers. Now I think that, actually, it’s just a “collaboration sampler” in the sense that six different breweries (DB + 5) contributed beers to the sampler, and the various beers were each brewed in-house by their respective brewers, solo. Hope that makes sense.